Modular tire manufacturing by Marangoni & VMI

Marangoni Pneumatici SpA and VMI HOLLAND BV together produced the first full scale production version of the VMI MTM (Modular Tire Manufacturing) system, in a co-development process. The MTM consists of a self contained cell for flexible production of finished passenger car tires. The MTM cell includes the manufacturing of the tire components, tire building and curing in one comprehensive system. The first MTM cell started operation in Rovereto, Italy in 2007. By now it is still in test conditions but the quality data from the tires produced so far show the ability to produce at considerable higher quality levels than the same tires produced in the standard building process.

Why MTM

The concept was developed to allow the manufacturing of short runs of highly specialized passenger and light truck tires (including SUV), both efficiently and cost effectively. Within a given RIM size, the cell produces tires with different dimensions and cord angles without loss of change over time. The cell offers a high degree of flexibility to respond to the demands of the market for small batches with a wide variation of types and sizes of specialized tires. Each tire together with its specification is ordered individually by a so called “Cell Controller” taking in to account the optimal use of the curing moulds and production planning. With the product diversity increasing exponentially, the “traditional” methods of manufacturing find it difficult to adapt to these new market conditions.  

Proven technology

The building process is derived from VMI’s proven concept of single stage flat drum tire building, Marangoni’s stipwinding technology and is fully automatic with state of the art sensor technology for quality control. Tire components are produced directly at the tire building process and offer a high degree of accuracy, compared to the classical off line component preparation process. In particular, radial run out and the first harmonic of radial force variation demonstrate a remarkable improvement basically due to the spliceless tire construction.&nbsp 

Cost effective

Because the MTM cell is so efficient at producing diverse sizes types of tires and does it at high output levels, it is very cost effective. Add to that the reduction in floor space (no green tire and component storage) and the elimination of very large and expensive component preparation equipment, it very quickly becomes apparent that MTM is the system for today’s tire manufacturing.

For more information, please feel free to contact:

Mr. Harm Voortman,
President Sales & Projects at VMI
Phone + 31 578 679 111
email; sales [at] vmi-group [dot] com

or

Mr. Edoardo Salaorni at Marangoni
Phone + 39 0464 485 232
email; e [dot] salaorni [at] marangoni [dot] com